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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.8 CVE-2023-31038 EUVD-2023-35375GHSA-76cx-3v2m-9952

Apache Log4cxx: SQL injection when using ODBC appender

Published May 8, 2023 · Updated Oct 15, 2024 · Assigned by apache

Description

SQL injection in Log4cxx when using the ODBC appender to send log messages to a database.  No fields sent to the database were properly escaped for SQL injection.  This has been the case since at least version 0.9.0(released 2003-08-06)

Note that Log4cxx is a C++ framework, so only C++ applications are affected.

Before version 1.1.0, the ODBC appender was automatically part of Log4cxx if the library was found when compiling the library.  As of version 1.1.0, this must be both explicitly enabled in order to be compiled in.

Three preconditions must be met for this vulnerability to be possible:

1. Log4cxx compiled with ODBC support(before version 1.1.0, this was auto-detected at compile time)

2. ODBCAppender enabled for logging messages to, generally done via a config file

3. User input is logged at some point. If your application does not have user input, it is unlikely to be affected.

Users are recommended to upgrade to version 1.1.0 which properly binds the parameters to the SQL statement, or migrate to the new DBAppender class which supports an ODBC connection in addition to other databases.
Note that this fix does require a configuration file update, as the old configuration files will not configure properly.  An example is shown below, and more information may be found in the Log4cxx documentation on the ODBCAppender.

Example of old configuration snippet:

<appender name="SqlODBCAppender" class="ODBCAppender">

    <param name="sql" value="INSERT INTO logs (message) VALUES ('%m')" />

    ... other params here ...

</appender>

The migrated configuration snippet with new ColumnMapping parameters:

<appender name="SqlODBCAppender" class="ODBCAppender">

    <param name="sql" value="INSERT INTO logs (message) VALUES (?)" />

    <param name="ColumnMapping" value="message"/>
    ... other params here ...

</appender>

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Apache Software Foundation Apache Log4cxx 0.9.0 – < 1.1.0 1.1.0

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 log4cxx 1.1.0-1 —
Debian 13 log4cxx 1.1.0-1 —
Debian 12 log4cxx No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS log4cxx No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed log4cxx 1.1.0-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2024:13545-1

Advisories 1

References